Untitled [female nude posing in studio] 1955 - 1967

Richard Diebenkorn made this nude study in ink on paper, and what grabs me is its raw energy. The application is so immediate, you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the page. There’s a real sense of discovery in each stroke. The ink is laid down in washes, pooling in certain areas and creating a range of tonal variations. Look at the model’s face and how the shadows are rendered – these bold, dark shapes give her a real presence. Then notice the legs and how some areas are just barely suggested with a thin wash of ink. It's this contrast between the dense and the sparse that makes the whole image vibrate. Diebenkorn was known for his abstract paintings, and you can see the same kind of spatial awareness at play here. There’s a push and pull between the figure and the background. Artists like Goya come to mind, in their shared interest in the expressive possibilities of tonal contrast. It's a reminder that art is always in conversation with itself, across time and media.